Hype vs. Natural Tempo: a Long-term Study of Dance Music Tempi
Dirk Moelants · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) · 2008
Musical tempi found in dance music provide us with information on the relationship between music and movement.Large databases of (dance) music tempi are available as tools for DJs.In this paper, one specific database, the 'Scandinavian Dance Charts' is the main object of study.The database contains the tempi of the Top 40 in the dance charts which is updated weekly since 1998.Analysis of the tempo distributions thus provides us with details on the evolution in tempo over a period of 10 years.The long-term study of dance music tempi may allow us to distinguish between fashion trends in dance music (and dance movement) and the most preferred, natural tempo.It shows that he main peak stays very consistent at 128 bpm, with a small range around it (125-130) representing about half of the total entries.Looking for variation in the data throughout time has allowed us to identify the styles behind different tempo zones and to follow their evolution throughout time.Dance music found outside the preferred range can be associated with different types of movement related to different resonance phenomena.